In news– Kazakhstan has recently invited Indian Prime Minister to the Conference on Confidence Building Measures and Interaction in Asia (CICA) Summit.
About CICA summit-
- It is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.
- It is a forum based on the recognition that there is a close link between peace, security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world.
- The idea of convening CICA was first proposed by the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Elbasy H.E. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, on 5 October 1992, at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
- The moving spirit behind this initiative was the aspiration to set up an efficient and acceptable structure for ensuring peace and security in Asia.
- The two founding documents of CICA are Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations between the CICA Member States adopted at the First Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Almaty on 14 September 1999 and the Almaty Act, charter of CICA, adopted at the First Summit held in Almaty on 4 June 2002.
- Following the spirit of the founding documents, CICA pursues its policy based on the principles of sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs of the Member States and economic, social and cultural cooperation to achieve its main objective of enhancing cooperation through elaborating multilateral approaches towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia. All decisions within CICA framework are taken by consensus.
- To be a member of CICA, a state must have at least a part of its territory in Asia.
- Fifteen states meeting this criterion signed the Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations between the CICA Member States at the First Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in 1999 and became founding members of CICA.
- Presently CICA has 27 Member States accounting for nearly ninety percent of the territory and population of Asia.
- Nine countries and five multi-national organizations, including the United Nations, have observer status.
- The highest decision making organ of CICA is the Meeting of the CICA Heads of State and Government (Summit).
- The CICA Summit is convened every four years in order to conduct consultations, review the progress of, and set priorities for CICA activities.
- The Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs is required to be held every two years.
- The Ministerial Meeting is the central forum for consultations and examination of all issues related to CICA activities.
- The CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures describes various measures and the Cooperative Approach for the Implementation of the CICA CBMs lays down the procedures for implementing the confidence building measures.
- External relations of CICA are governed by the Guidelines for CICA’s External Relations.
- CICA was conferred observer status by the United Nations General Assembly at its 62nd session in 2007.
- The CICA Secretariat – administrative body of CICA – is located in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
- Since independence in 1991, Kazakhstan, as well as the Central Asian region as a whole, has begun to attract more attention from the international community. Kazakhstan is the biggest and most resource-rich nation in the region.
- The most active political and economic platforms for the region are the SCO, CICA, Congress of World and Traditional Religions and others.
- In 2002, then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee attended the first CICA Summit in July 2002 in Kazakhstan. A decree was signed to revert the name of Kazakhstan capital back to Astana from Nursultan.
- The current summit mark the 30th anniversary of the CICA and to which the leaders of all participants and observers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are invited.